A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Montreal woman convicted of criminal negligence after stopping car to save ducklings Now here's a news item that's splitting the country right down the middle. In 2010, Emma Czornobaj was driving on a highway south of Montreal when she saw a gaggle of ducklings on the narrowing road shoulder. Realizing the precarious position the animals were in, so close to traffic, she stopped her car. It all went wrong from there.
Firstly, Czornobaj stopped her car in the lefthand lane, and she didn't put her hazards on, simply leaving the car running while she hurried over to shoo the ducks along. It was a moment's thoughtlessness, but it had a devastating effect - a motorcyclist approaching at speed saw the woman on the side of the road and reportedly gestured to indicate how unsafe it was for her to be on the shoulder.
By the time he turned back, he was too close to Czornobaj's parked car to stop. The resulting crash killed both the motorcyclist
and his daughter, who was riding pillion.
After a lengthy trial, the court found Czornobaj guilty of two counts of criminal negligence causing death, and two counts of dangerous driving.
Sentencing has yet to go through, although defence lawyers are hoping the obvious lack of criminal intent will be taken into account.
The lesson here is twofold - obviously don't stop for ducks in the middle of a highway, but more than that, remember that if your car stalls or breaks down in traffic, you need to be visible to your fellow motorists. Always carry reflective cones or similar safety items.
The second lesson is to always expect the unexpected. It might not be a car parked in the road, but you never know whether there's some obstacle around the next bend, be it a deer, or fallen tree or - this is Canada after all - a bear. Keep your eyes up, and be ready.
F1 tries to recapture the spark of excitement And now for something completely stupid in another way. With audience excitement at a low thanks to Formula One's changeover to the less audibly thrilling V-6 turbo engines, attempts are being made to get back some spectacle to the pinnacle of motorsport.
In the 1980s, sparks used to fly out of the back of the low-slung racecars as they scraped over the bumps in the track, so both Mercedes and Ferrari are fitting titanium skid plates to recreate the effect. The hope is for cars to trail huge clouds of sparks behind them through the corners, thus suitably thrilling the crowds. What nonsense.
You might as well strap a T-shirt cannon onto Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes, bolt a confetti dispenser to Fernando Alonso's Ferrari and call it a day - the idea that a fake effect needs to be introduced into what's supposed to be the most technologically advanced race series on the planet is frankly pathetic.
Anything done in F1 should be about more speed.
Allowances will be made if they want to add frickin' laser-beams to the cars, but that's about it.
Audi working on electric turbocharger for Q7 The turbocharger is an ancient invention, at least by automotive standards, but new ways to utilize its simple principles keep cropping up. Case in point: Audi's current development project to use an electric turbocharger.
Sister company Porsche already used a turbine to harvest the energy from spent exhaust gasses in their Le Mans car. Part of the recent F1 success for Mercedes can be attributed to the unique way in which they've split the turbocharger apart into air-compressor and exhaust turbine, aiding in controlling heat.
Now, the technology is due to come to the street, possibly in the new Audi Q7 diesel. Dubbing their tech e-boost, Audi has already used an electrically powered supercharger in concept form to help eliminate turbo lag.
The handy thing about dividing the turbocharger into electrical collector and battery powered air pump isn't just packaging, but an improved responsiveness: the power is there on-demand when you need it for passing. With the proliferation of turbocharging in everything from the tiny Fiesta to highperformance Ferraris, the e-turbo could help make our future even more boosted.
McQueen's Porsche 917 heads to auction block This is gonna be a pricey one. Considering that the Porsche 911 street car that Steve McQueen drove at the beginning of the classic film Le Mans fetched more than twice its ordinary value because of its association with the actor, this legitimate 1960s racecar is going to cost the moon.
The Porsche 917 isn't really the sort of thing you can drive around on the street either. It's immensely overpowered, incredibly tricky to drive, and tremendously expensive. Aside from extremely rare early models, this might be one of the most costly Porsches ever.
However, it's the iconic Gulf Livery that's most interesting here. Now appropriated by Aston Martin, it'd be great to see the colours come back on something affordable like a Cayman or Boxster. Porsche offers Martini racing livery as a dealer accessory on their 911 - only in the United States - and it would be great if classic racing colours could be seen on the street, in tribute.
Watch this space for all the best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected] Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendan_mcaleer.
